But so long as they
both lived, he could not do without her.
* * * * *
Early the following morning Alicia Drake appeared in Eaton Square, and
by two o'clock Mrs. Fotheringham was also there. She had rushed up from
Leeds by the first possible train, summoned by Alicia's letter. Lady
Lucy and her daughter held conference, and Miss Drake was admitted to
their counsels.
"Of course, mamma," said Isabel Fotheringham, "I don't at all agree with
you in the matter. Nobody is responsible for their mothers and fathers.
We make ourselves. But I shall not be sorry if the discovery frees
Oliver from a marriage which would have been a rope round his neck. She
is a foolish, arrogant, sentimental girl, brought up on the most
wrong-headed principles, and she could _never_ have made a decent wife
for him. She will, I hope, have the sense to see it--and he will be well
out of it."
"Oliver, at present, is very determined," said Lady Lucy, in a tone of
depression.
"Oh, well, of course, having just proposed to her, he must, of course,
behave like a gentleman--and not like a cad. But she can't possibly hold
him to it.
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